Candyman (1992)

Bitter Sweet

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

English filmmaker Bernard Rose would go on to make movies about Beethoven and movies based on works by Tolstoy, but for a fleeting moment, he was a horror guy. His Candyman (1992) was based on a story by Clive Barker and featured several high-class touches, such as a creepy score by Philip Glass, and striking art direction, clashing the academic world with graffiti-ridden inner city projects. Two college students (Virginia Madsen and future film director Kasi Lemmons) research a paper on urban legends. One such legend, the Candyman, appears if you say his name five times in a mirror, which, of course, happens. Tony Todd plays the weirdly elegant, but quite deadly, monster.